The Qatar Stock Exchange on Wednesday saw strong buying interests at the insurance counter but overall it settled in the negative at a tad above 9,800 levels.

The telecom, consumer goods and banking sectors witnessed higher than average selling, leading to a 0.18% decline for the fourth straight session to 9,805.4 points.

Doha Bank- and Masraf Al Rayan-sponsored exchange traded funds QATR and QETF witnessed 0.36% and 2% declines respectively.

The Islamic equities were seen declining slower than the other indices in the market which is up more than 15% year-to-date.

Trade turnover grew amidst falling volumes in the bourse, where industrials and banking sectors together accounted for about 51% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index fell 0.18% to 17,276.02 points and the Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.03% to 2,357.33 points, while the All Share Index gained 0.08% to 2,877.07 points.

The telecom index shrank 1%, followed by consumer goods (0.44%) and banks and financial services (0.23%); whereas insurance gained 3.92%, realty (0.39%), industrials (0.07%) and transport (0.05%).

Major losers included Ooredoo, Commercial Bank, Salam International Investment, Medicare Group, Gulf International Services and Vodafone Qatar; while Qatar Insurance, Zad Holding, Qatari Investors Group, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding and Untied Development Company were among the gainers.

The Gulf institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR20.2mn compared with net buyers of QR0.42mn on Tuesday.

Local individual investors’ net profit-booking increased marginally to QR21.73mn against QR21.6mn on September 18.

However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying expanded perceptibly to QR64.15mn compared to QR63.03mn the previous day.

Non-Qatari individuals turned net buyers to the tune of QR3.06mn against net sellers of QR1.08mn on Tuesday.

Domestic institutions’ net profit-booking weakened considerably to QR24.51mn compared to QR39.97mn on September 18.

The Gulf individuals’ net selling declined marginally to QR0.79mn against QR0.83mn the previous day.

Total trade volume fell 5% to 5.55mn shares, while value gained 3% to QR218.8mn and transactions by 3% to 3,301.

The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 49% to 0.57mn equities, value by 7% to QR14.98mn and deals by 6% to 328.

The banks and financial services sector saw a 27% plunge in trade volume to 1.29mn stocks, 13% in value to QR77.38mn and 7% in transactions to 902.

The real estate sector’s trade volume shrank 8% to 0.94mn shares; while value grew 11% to QR25.37mn and deals by 5% to 488.

However, the insurance sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 0.71mn equities and value doubled to QR27.4mn on a 21% jump in transactions to 202.

There was 57% surge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.33mn stocks, 17% in value to QR23.31mn and 43% in deals to 288.

The industrials sector’s trade volume soared 26% to 1.53mn shares, value by 1% to QR45.37mn and transactions by 7% to 929.

The transport sector reported 19% expansion in trade volume to 0.19mn equities but on a 6% decline in value to QR4.97mn and 10% in deals to 164.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.

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